YOTREPS: YES
TIME: 2015/04/18 11:53
LATITUDE: 16-20.24N
LONGITUDE: 086-28.52W
COMMENT: Beach House – DOCKED – Barefoot Cay Marina, Roatan, Bay of Islands – Honduras
Still awaiting (now over 3 weeks!) for a weather window to get around \”Punta Gracias Adios\’ (Thank God Point).
Essentially, we\’re stuck in the almost bottom of the Gulf of Honduras and have to go over 200 miles straight upwind.
Given the amount of wind and sea state, it would be more than a miserable and very slow trip.
We\’ve had 15-33 knots daily for most of the time we\’ve been here. It\’s a nice spot, we\’d just like to move on.
We\’re even considering going back to Guatemala for the off season if this continues too much longer. There is no apparent break in the weather
at the moment for at least another week.
KIT,
Scott and Nikki – Roatan, Bay of Islands – Honduras
AIRMAIL YOTREPS
IDENT: N6ABC
TIME: 2015/03/26 23:00
LATITUDE: 16-21.44N
LONGITUDE: 086-26.31W
COMMENT: Beach House – DOCKED – Fantasy Island, Roatan, Bay of Islands – Honduras
We decided to move on as the weather would be reasonably cooperative and Roatan is the big deal island of this group.
Still pretty bumpy out there and the wind was calm. It picked up later in the afternoon and made the ride more testy.
We\’re at Fantasy Island Marina (which is no longer a Fantasy). It\’s seen better days. We may move tomorrow to Barefoot Cay Marina after we check
Windward\’s crew into the country and see what it\’s like.
This is the daunting leg of the journey and the point at the end of the Honduran/Nicaraugan Peninsula is called \”Gracias Dios\” (Thank God Point).
Why? Because the wind and current embay or pocket us in to the Gulf of Honduras. Christopher Columbus took 90 days to get out of this bay tacking back and forth.
3 months to to 150 miles! His crew upon seeing the point, where the land again turns south said, \”Gracias Dios\” and so it was named.
That leg of our journey is yet to come and of course we have two diesel engines that Christopher Columbus could only have dreamed of!
KIT,
We\’ll update you on our tour of this island, we may be here up to a week.
Scott and Nikki
We had a nice anchor spot in the river mouth last night and it was fascinating watching all the various fishing boats come and go. Mostly, really small ones.
The trip up the Rio Dulce Gorge was quite spectacular – a real Disneyland \”Jungle Cruise\” including spotting a Manatee in the 7 mile gorge!
We\’re 20 miles \”up river\” and are expecting my friend Carmina tomorrow who will drive from Guatemala City (5+ hours!).
We have good power and water here and are in a nice comfy slip. We\’ve met the American owner (whose US residence is Aqua Dulce, California) and he is quite a story himself. More in the blog. We should have internet here and we\’ll be able to catch up on the blogs. We hear it rains here (El Nino) every night. Fortunately for us, the Air Con works!
We\’ll keep you posted. We expect to be here about a week, maybe a bit more as we\’ll have to watch the weather.
KIT,
Scott and Nikki
We had another breezy night at Glover Reef and during the day, we did one dive. We departed this morning and had a lovely sail to the Gladden Spit.
The Spit is a big entrance to the inner reef system (which is poorly charted and lots of \”extra\” reefs). This reef system reminds me a lot of the Mamanuca Islands in West Fiji.
Whale Sharks will be all around the spit at the next full moon.
We\’ll hope to catch that event off the Bay Islands of Honduras (Utila, Roatan and Guanaja).
Once inside the reef, we motored the 20 miles here to Placencia where there are about 20 cruisers anchored, plenty of room and a very comfy anchorage with a nice breeze.
We hope to go ashore and have dinner. Nikki has been storing up her \”food credits\”…:-)
We\’ll check out tomorrow and then on Tuesday head to the Rio Dulce of Guatemala!
KIT,
Scott and Nikki
We decided to make the 9-10 mile trip up to the Blue Hole and invited Lisette and Dennis from s/v \”Windward\” to come along for their first catamaran ride..:-)
This is the most famous of the Blue Hole\’s in the world due to being well photographed and dived by Jacques Cousteau. It is a national treasure of Belize. At 450 deep, it\’s not the deepest, but it\’s very round shape, surrounded by clear light turquoise water no deeper than 20 feet, is what makes it a stunner from the air.
We were anchored just outside the west rim and to get the full effect both Nikki and I went up in the Bosun\’s Chair to take photos and really take in the view. It was Nikki\’s first time up the mast!
About 5 small aircraft, most likely on tours, circled over head in the 2 1/2 hours we were there. Hope one of them tries to track us down for a photo as it would be a spectacular shot of \”Beach House\” on he rim of the Blue Hole. When we get internet, I\’ll post some photos from \”up the mast\” – 80 feet in the air.
We took a dinghy tour and saw 390 feet deep on the depth sounder; the water cobalt blue. I did the dive 19 years ago with Cindy and frankly, it\’s a nothing dive.
We did do some snorkeling and that was quite nice along the rim.
A bit tricky to dodge the coral patches en route, but no real worries. On the way back, the very low sun was NOT helpful, but fortunately we had a good tight \”track\”
of our way in on our chart plotter, so it was pretty easy coming back out.
We may do some diving on the lee of Long Cay tomorrow, the \”Belize Agressor III\” has been out on various buoys behind us over the last three days. Our friends on the catamaran, s/v \”Like Dolphins\” (from Belgium) have dove every day and say it\’s fabulous.
We took advantage of a light wind day to get east which is normally against the trade winds here. It was so light, we motored most of the way.
For all you boaters who go \”far a field\”…take note! Belize and Southern Mexico\’s charts are not \”geo referenced\”. This is the process where the surveys were done
PRIOR to GPS! The surveys are pretty good (not perfect!), but the land areas are not in the correct GPS position. Why? Because they did their latitude and longitude
by sextant! Very close, but NOT exact. They were \”good\” cartographers, but NOT perfect. As such, the reef entrance here is shown 550 feet further east than it really is!. Careful eyeball navigation is essential when you know the charts are not \”geo referenced\”.
Geo Referencing is done using satellite imagery and other techniques. The first areas to be done were started about 8 years ago and of course where commercial shipping and cruise ships go – those areas were done first. As we are in a pretty non commercial area…they haven\’t caught up here yet. Just today\’s \”boating 101 lesson\”…
Turneffe Reef is one of only four true atolls in the Caribbean. The other 2 we hope to visit over the next week. Chinchoro Bank in Mexico is the fourth.
These reefs are very much like the atolls of the South Pacific in the Tuamotu Group as well as many of the Cook Islands and others in the Western Pacific and Eastern Indian Oceans.
I got great response from the Cuba Blogs, thanks for all your notes.
We\’ll head to Light House Reef (17 miles to our east) tomorrow and hang out there for awhile. It\’s the home of the famous \”Blue Hole\” that Jacques Cousteau made famous. He actually dynamited the reef to get \”Calyspo\” inside. When the Belizean Government heard he did it without their permission, they banned him from ever returning to Belize. Ironically, despite the fact that it\’s a great aerial photo, it\’s a nothing dive. It has become the number one diver/tourist attraction to this nation. Who knew?…:-)
KIT,
Scott and Nikki
AIRMAIL YOTREPS
IDENT: N6ABC
TIME: 2015/03/04 20:56
LATITUDE: 17-54.85N
LONGITUDE: 087-57.76W
COMMENT: Beach House – ANCHORED – San Pedro – Ambergris Cay, Belize
We learned a new trick about how to get out of shallow anchorages in the dark…hint!
Search Light!!! I\’ll write it up in the blog!
Great sail here today, lots of protection from the open sea by the north/south length of the reef on Chinchoro Bank.
Wish we\’d had time to explore. But Belize is one giant reef and we\’ll have plenty of opportunity.
Anchored next to s/v \”Windward\” who gave great advice on entering this potentially tough reef passage. Bouncy, not too deep and waves
breaking on either side. Reminded me of Tahiti or some of the Tuamotus in the Pacific.
Stand by..We\’ll be here for a week or two, then to see Carmina in the Rio Dulce of Guatemala…. Blog\’s a commin\’.
KIT,
Scott and Nikki
February 24th – March 3rd, 2015 (UTC -5) Quintanaroo, Mexico has decided to stay on US East Coast time despite being as far east as Texas!
Dear Friends and Family,
We departed Isla Mujeres and motored with little wind down the coast for the 30 mile trip to Puerto Morelos, Mexico – still in the State of Quintanaroo. Ya\’ gotta\’ love that name! We arrived with Dennis and Lisette on “Windward” and decided that the next day we’d rent a car and the four of us would drive to the Mayan Ruins of “Coba” and “Tulum”. Along the way we made a quick drive through at Puerto Aventura which ended up looking like a Mexican Newport Beach, California. Very upmarket with a well protected marina. It would have made an interesting stop with the boats.
Note our alternate ride en route to Coba…..:-)
Scott and Nikki in our Coba Taxi. It was a long walk between pyramids, so we took the easy way out.
As there was no Toltec influence in Coba, there was no tradition of human sacrifice. This despite the fact that it was only a few hundred kilometers from Chichen Itza to the north.
Dennis and Lisette of \”Windward\” at the base of the 70 meter pyramid – El CitadelNikki and Scott (in distance) carefully negotiating our way down El Citadel. It was much steeper than it looked. Note the rope if you need a security blanket.Guard Tower: There were several roads that at one time were up to 10 meters wide and completely paved with stone. Guards would sit on the four corners of this structure and could see for miles who was coming toward Coba.
We got off to a late start and realized that if we wanted to get to Tulum before it closed, we’d have to make tracks.
We arrived about a half an hour before Tulum closed, but it was long enough to get a feel for one of the only Mayan sites that was right on the coast of the Mexican Riviera. In the Mayan language (of which there are about 22 dialects), Tulum means wall. It was one of or the only walled cities in the Mayan culture. An incredible beach setting, see all about the particulars at this link below: https://www.locogringo.com/mexico/ways-to-play/mayan-ruins-archaeological-sites/tulum-ruins/
Nikki entering one of the few places the wall has an entry portal – Tulum, Mexico \”The Walled City\”The main Citadel from the north side with the beach down belowBeach below the Citadel, Tulum – Mexico. Note the ever present \”Sargasso Weed\” on the white sand beach.The Citadel – The ruins of Tulum are actually not that extensive and the Citadel is the most interesting and prominent building as it is right on the cliffs above the beach. Reserved for the elite of course!Tourists on the beach below and just to the north of the Citadel. Day boats will anchor inside the reef on somewhat calm days. Today was not one of those days….
We got back to the boat late and were very glad we’d moved from our original slips as a Southeaster started to blow hard and the way the marina was oriented, it made for the docks to look like roller coaster tracks during the night.
The really cool thing is that when we went to the end of the dock, we saw another SWITCH 51 sister ship, “Neko” with Peter and Mary had just arrived from the island of Providencia, Columbia – headed north. A great surprise!
Peter, Mary, Nikki and Scott onboard \”Neko\” – Switch #12. \”Neko\” is cat in Japanese.\”Neko\” has the tall saloon roof like Beach House and except for their red versus our blue, the boats really do look alike. As well, they have twin aft wheels where we have a single steering wheel on the port forward bulkhead.Scott, Nikki, Mary and Peter aboard \”Beach House\” – Puerto Morelos. We\’d been hoping to catch up with each other for several years.
We had been in touch ever since Peter bought the boat (Hull #12, the one right after Beach House) and hoped that we would meet up one day. Friend and blog follower Mike Priest had even delivered the boat for Peter from Puerto Vallarta, Mexico to San Francisco back in 2010-11.
We had a great time meeting them, looking at each other’s boats and comparing notes. Peter and Mary would be stopped off for an air trip to TITSNBN in a few days (You remember: That Island That Shall Not Be Named – aka: Cuba) while we would continue south with “Windward”.
After our trip to the ruins, we spent a few days in Puerto Morelos including visiting the small town which turned out to be really nice. Some great restaurants, a nice town square (zocolo) and all right on the beach. There is the old lighthouse that was turned into a “leaning tower” when Hurricane Mitch came through in 1998. Puerto Morelos was ground zero where \”Mitch\” came ashore. “Mitch” was a whopper and almost 20,000 people were killed throughout Central America and Mexico with over 6 billion dollars of property damage. The far Western Caribbean doesn’t get that many Hurricanes, but when they do, they can be devastating. See the following link on Hurricane Mitch: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Mitch
The old lighthouse in Puerto Morelos that was doing it\’s best leaning tower of Morelos imitation. It has since been replaced as a lighthouse but left as a reminder to the devastation of Hurricane Mitch.
Time was progressing and “Dad” Scott has to be in LA on the 30th of May to give away my one and only baby girl at her wedding! Temps Fugit – Time is Fleeing and as such, we moved on next to Cozumel which was only about 20 miles to our Southwest. We’d meet up with “Windward” at the small island of Cayo Cuelbra in a remote bay in southern Mexico – en route to Belize in a couple of days.
Though the trip was only 20 miles, it took quite along time as the 3+ knot Gulf Stream Current yet again reared it’s ugly head. There are no great anchorages in Cozumel and it’s really a Scuba Diver’s Paradise. There are some of the best drift dives in the Caribbean along it’s western reefs.
I\’d like to give a better photo, but this cruise dock says it all
I had been here with Cindy in 1996 for a diving vacation and boy had this place changed. Again…not for the better. Back in the day, Cozumel was about 4 diver hotels with a few upmarket resorts – all catering to divers. Today, 4-6 cruise ships a day come here every day but Sunday. Why? I have no idea. There really is no site seeing here, nothing of archeological or historic interest and the Cruise Lines have created a giant open market (that looks local, but isn’t) where the tourists buy “Chachkis” by the bus load. The folks on the cruise lines think they’re buying local crafts and…a few of them maybe are. For the most part it’s a rouse and the market is owned and operated by the cruise lines themselves. Just another revenue source from the tourists. They typically stop is for just the day.
After one night of this, we knew it was time for our boot heels to be wanderin’….
The next morning, we left early to beat the cruise ship tango and motored along the Marine Reserve on the Westside of the island. Dozens of dive pangas (small boats) were on site by 8:30 a.m.
Cayo Cuelbra Dolphin. The water was only 10 feet deep, but an entire group of dolphins followed us into Cayo Cuelbra. Yet another bay with so so charting.Cayo Culebra Sunset.
When we reached the tip of the island, we set sail for the 40+ miles to Cayo Cuelebra where we hoped to meet up with “Windward” for the night. It was a combination motor/sail but a much easier trip than the day before. We arrived off the shallow banks of Bahia de la Ascencion and hailed “Windward” on the radio. They had arrived that morning after an overnight sail from Puerto Morelos. They had been to Cozumel more recently and knew that we’d be disappointed. They were right.
As part of the off the beaten path adventure route, Nikki and I decided to head for Chinchorro Bank which is one of only four true atolls in the Caribbean. Much like the islands of the Tuamotus in the South Pacific, this is a rarely visited Mexican National Park and research atoll. It was right on the way, so we decided to go. Along the way, we came across two boats headed north who had stayed there the night before. They said it was beautiful and that getting into the anchorage was easy if we followed the cruising guide….ummm!
When we arrived at Chinchorro Bank, it was getting late. First we realized that our charts and the guidebooks\’ waypoints had only the vaguest notions of each other in common. In fact, following the guidebooks waypoints, we’d be going right over the entry reef for over a mile! As such, we cautiously did so and had no difficulties till we got to the anchorage. Here, the guide book told us we’d have 6-8 feet of depth to anchor in the protection of Cayo Norte, a small island inside the north of the bank. This was also where the park headquarters were to be found. When we got to the anchorage, we quickly found we were in MAYBE 4 feet of water and no matter how we hunted and pecked our way around, it wasn’t getting any deeper. A panga from the park (we surmised?) came out and as it went zooming by, suggested the one mooring that was apparent. First, I’m suspicious of anyone’s moorings I don’t know. Second, it was in an open unprotected area and would have been very uncomfortable for the night, especially when the reef was at high tide. Lastly, every time I tried to get close to it, the water got shallower!
Cayo Norte with it\’s lighthouse at Chinchorro Bank. The water was all of about 4 feet deep here.
As such, I had found a 4.5 foot spot, went back to it and dropped the anchor. We did this just before it got too dark to see the bottom. We had a pretty comfortable night and also…a full moon. This turned out to be a light bulb (of sorts). Knowing that we had to leave VERY EARLY the next morning to get to San Pedro, Belize, I was concerned about seeing my way out with no light.
The sand flats were interspersed with flat areas of rock and hitting that would be more than a negative experience. I got up at 4 a.m. and low and behold, the moon was so bright, I could easily see the bottom and discern where the rock flats were from the sand patches. However, at 7 a.m. (when I wanted to leave), the moon would be too low, the sun too bright to see even the 4 foot depths.
So, (and here’s where the light bulb so to speak) went “on”. I turned on our very bright search light which is located about 1/2 way up our mast. It’s remote controlled and it lit the sandy bottom (before sunrise) up like a light show! This allowed us, using our in bound track, to see any obstructions and get out of Dodge.
The charts were clearly not \”geo referenced\” as there was no commercial need here. Geo Referencing charts is where the original surveys, often done in the 1800’s, are not correlated to accurate modern GPS positions. The charts are usually right (but not here), and the GPS coordinates which are highly accurate don’t match. Geo Referencing is an ongoing project by charting agencies around the world started back in 2007. Areas of high traffic and commercial interest are being done first – and for the most part – have been completed. Chinchorro Bank has not been done. The other aspect of our charts was that they showed land areas where there were none! I suspect Hurricanes over the years have submerged these areas. Chinchorro is a wild place and would have been fun to explore, but given the weather moving in and poor charting, it will have to wait for some other intrepid navigator to take it on.
Nkki en route to San Pedro Belize from Chinchorro Bank
Chinchorro Rainbow en route to San Pedro Belize
We had a brilliant and lovely sail, the 50 miles to San Pedro, Belize and yet again another “experience” with inaccurate charting. The entry to to reef would be with the sun behind it in the afternoon, making the entry potentially difficult to see. Dennis on “Windward” was already inside the reef and confirmed the location of the buoy and entry coordinates for us.
Arriving outside the reef at San Pedro, Belize (Photo by Dennis). Believe it or not, in our next blog, you\’ll actually see Beach House UNDER SAIL!Scott breaking out the courtesy flag of Belize with our Yellow \”Q\” Flag below
You have to make a quick dog leg to the right just after you get through the reef as to not hit another reef, just inside the passage. The light was good, so the entry was straight forward. This was the first pass I’d seen in sometime that looked like some of the areas of the South Pacific. We anchored in 5 feet behind “Windward” and shortly after, the expected 20-30 knots started to blow. The reef was good protection, but at high tide, a bit bouncy! We’d check in the next day after sharing “sea stories” with Lisette and Dennis and begin our Belizian experience then!
Adios for now!
More soon,
Scott and Nikki (written from Roatan – The Bay of Islands, Honduras – waiting out the weather)
AIRMAIL YOTREPS
IDENT: N6ABC
TIME: 2015/03/02 20:19
LATITUDE: 19-42.35N
LONGITUDE: 087-30.15W
COMMENT: Beach House – ANCHORED – Cayo Cuelbra – Bahia De La Ascension, Mexico
We had a dinner and supermarket shop in Cozumel. The anchorage was okay, but we could see how it would be quite the roll under
certain circumstances. We left at 7a.m. just as the first of 6 cruise ships was arriving. Apparently, except for Sunday, the cruise ships
now dominate the island.
We motored while hugging the shore to the south west end of the island, then motor sailed or sailed the rest of the way here. Overall, a lovely day!
\”Windward\” is anchored next to us as they left Puerto Morelos last night at 6 pm! Another Catalina 42, just up from Belize is here as well. This spot
is about as remote a place as I\’ve ever been in Mexico!
We actually checked out of Mexico in Puerto Moralos, but they give you 48 hours to depart. As such, we decided to take 20 miles off tomorrow\’s
journey and come to the famous diving island of Cozumel. It\’s very built up since I was here with Cindy in 1996.
We luckily met sister ship Switch 51 #12 (the boat after Beach House) in Puerto Morelos. Peter and Mary aboard \”Neko\”. It was pretty cool to see yet another boat that looks pretty much – just like us!
Despite the only 20 mile journey, it took 4 1/2 hours to get here due to the very strong 2.5-3 knot current against us. Friends Dennis and Lisette on \”Windward\” will try and hug the coast to avoid this current as they head toward Bahia de la Ascension where we hope to meet up tomorrow late afternoon.
We\’ll take a look around shore if we can find a place for the dinghy and depart here early tomorrow for Bahia de la Ascension en route toward
Belize. We may stop at the Chinchoro Bank just before Belizian waters which is one of only a very few of the true atolls in the Western Hemisphere.
From there, we\’ll check in at Ambergris Cay – San Pedro, Belize….At least that\’s the plan!…:-)
KIT,
Scott and Nikki
